


mcu stories and legacies

by linabauer



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers watch their movies, F/F, F/M, Gen, So yeah, The Avengers (2012) Compliant, and decided to give it a go but also squeeze in marianat, blackhill superiority, btw this is like 2013-2014, but i am very busy and have no time to rewatch all the movies, first up is, have fun because im trying to fix my sleep schedule and also be on top of my work, i was rereading all the avengers watch their movies fic, in need of betas but i will deal with having un betad fics, more characters and relationships to be added, so i will adapt and watch clips and maybe consult the god fic a beautiful journey, we are starting there, we'll see how this goes, yay, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24506794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linabauer/pseuds/linabauer
Summary: Avengers watch their movies, basically. Fic starts in 2013-2014, pre-HYDRA and post-Iron Man 3Basically the future Avengers decided to drag the past Avengers to watch movies and fix their goddamn messes before Thanos comes and beats everyone's asses with his sparkly rock collection, you're welcome.Also adding in a few scenes that aren't in the actual movies but marianat is good and I just needed ONE watch it fics with blackhill content.
Relationships: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

2023, date redacted

"Are you sure this won't create a time paradox or something, because I'm not going to force myself into a heart attack or some seizure," Natasha frowns as she brushes her hair away.

"Relax, its fine. Multiverse, remember? Weird doctor magician who said oh, this was the only way? Besides, if we fail, there's going to be another version of us out there who succeeded," Tony shrugs.

"Let's get along with this," Nebula says, ending all conversation.

They all vanish as the machine tinkles and whirls.

2013, date redacted

"I forgot how bright the sun was in here," Clint groans as he rubs his eyes.

"That's not the sun, Clint," Natasha quietly says.

Clint opens his eyes and sees Iron Man's repulsor right at his eyes.

"Get out Stark, its too early for this, Stark, can you deal with your past self?" Clint says, staring back unflinchingly.

The mask retracts as 2013!Tony stares back at him.

"I'm sorry Legolas but what's with the whole mohawk cut thing," Tony says, gesturing.

"That is a result of aliens. He's gone a bit rogue since the good old days of Avengering," 2023!Tony replies, wincing slightly at the shield 2013!Steve had pointed at him.

"Is that me? Or is this some good tech," 2013!Tony asks, looking at 2023!Tony.

"Yeah, I'm you, but from the future, and we've all been through some shit. Long story short, wormhole thing was not fake, there's this creepy genocidal alien coming for these six stone things. We here are coming to help you prevent that. So, we've compiled movies, isn't this fun? Like movie night again before shit blew up and Legolas retired," 2023!Tony grins.

Poor Steve looks like he swallowed a lemon as he tries to comprehend what was happening.

"Don't be like that Tony, we have a job to do, besides, I need to see Fury. That motherfucker kept Carol a secret for years and didn't page her until it was too late," Natasha jokes.

"Who are you," 2013!Natasha growls, glock pointed precariously at her forehead.

"We're you guys but from the future, didn't we cover that already?" Clint says.

"Prove it," 2013!Clint snarls.

"Cooper," Clint replies and 2013!Clint looks at him, mildly surprised but overall poker face unmoveable.

"We know what you saw in the wormhole, Tony from the past. And he threw a moon at you in 2018, by the way. In space," 2023!Tony replies casually.

2013!Tony slackens a bit.

"What in ever loving hell is the meaning of this?" Fury demands as he strides in.

"Imposters, wanna bet?" Tony asks as he glances at all of them, JARVIS working to match their DNA for any terrorists.

Fury's gaze roves over the future Avengers.

"Good to see you too, Fury. You look like you're fresh from the flerkin days, huh," Carol grins and Natasha nearly snickers. Carol had shared the story with her and Nebula once, over dinner. It was amusing.

Fury frowns slightly at her.

"And how do I know that you're not a Skrull or any other wild alien coming over to kill us all?"

Carol smirks and raises her fist before blasting a few glass panels, shattering them with a photon blast.

"Skrulls can't do that," Carol smirks.

"Which colour did we sail on?" Fury asks.

Carol brings out her communicator from her suit and her smirk somehow deepens.

"Sent Yon-Rogg running back," Carol replies.

"What is going on here?" 2013!Tony asks, confused but seemingly unfazed.

"Looks like we really got ourselves some time travelling thing going on here," Fury concludes, and 2013!Steve looks pale and faint.

2013, date redacted

"Hey, so I'm Tony Stark, as you all know, but from the future," Tony smirks.

"I'm Steve from the future."

"I'm Clint from the future."

"I'm Natasha Romanov from year 2023."

"My name is Nebula."

"I'm Thor from the future."

"I'm called Rocket, and I am not a raccoon."

"I'm Bruce, and Hulk and I worked things out so that's kind of why I'm like that now."

"My name is Carol Danvers, or Captain Marvel."

"I'm Rhodey."

"I'm Scott Lang, Antman. We don't meet until 2016, first time unofficially, of course."

"Care to share what happens to make you invent time travelling and come back in time?" Tony asks, on the edge of his seat, clearly excited to know about time travelling.

"Not for you now, buddy. The years ahead gonna be hard enough without you time travelling," 2023!Tony wags his fingers.

"Future me is absolutely no fun, but at least Romanoff calls me Tony now. How long did it take you?"

"It took us a fight, another fight, about ten more fights, nearly dying again and again, then you getting married to Pepper and getting a child," Natasha casually says, smirking as Tony's mouth falls wide open and 2013!Natasha clearly assessing her, watching her every move.

"Did I seriously get that haircut," 2013!Clint sarcastically points at 2023!Clint.

"Hey, we were in mourning. 2018, that was some year," Clint blew out a breath and Natasha's fingers twitched to move to Clint's arm, 2013!Natasha and 2013!Clint zeroing in on the movements.

"I don't think my past self is taking this quite well," Steve points out.

"This, its just a little to take in, first I wake up, then aliens, and time travelling, next thing you're going to tell me is that Peggy or Bucky's around and kicking," Steve huffs and the future Avengers all collectively wince.

"About that, we have to start these movies. We need you to bring in Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, Thor, Jane, Darcy, Bruce, your half alien cap Carol and also, keep a look out for the Maximoff twins," Tony says, mentally ticking off the things needed to do.

Although the trust was fragile right now, the future Avengers looked mostly at ease. Besides Natasha, Clint and Nebula, of course. They were never relaxed.

"I'll have them here in at most a few days. Stark," Fury commands.

"On it, don't be so pushy, jesus," 2013!Tony rolls his eyes as he taps away at a tablet.

2013!Natasha and 2013!Clint seem to be communicating silently.

2023!Natasha and 2023!Clint look at each other, but decide to let their past selves figure out where they stood and if they could be trusted or not.

"So, this is the Avengers tower," Scott says.


	2. Chapter 2

2013, date redacted

It's all nearly surreal, but Natasha has seen more. It feels oddly familiar, like uncovering memories or finding old books left away in the dust. And when Maria, **Maria** , _Masha_ , steps in, giving a quick glance to 2013!Natasha, Natasha herself feels empty and hollow. She carefully avoids looking near Maria. It feels like re opening a wound that had never healed properly, like the scars on Maria, her own bullet wounds that set and healed too fast.

Clint links an arm around Natasha and drags her to the couch where most were starting so settle, since all were present.

"Do we run through a recap of 2012's marvellous Chitauri invasion of do we skip straight into the whole dum but necessary backstory shit?" Tony asks, flipping through a few options on his tablet.

"Vote time," Steve calls out, grinning.

"No, we are starting with a recap, then the backstories, then the future," Natasha firmly says before this can escalate further.

"Being Director made you so terribly boring but bossy, Natasha," Tony sighs as Natasha sees the past Avengers' reactions. Fury looks the same, Maria too, stoic and professional, Natasha still putting on that blank face and Clint trying too. Clint had never been the best at poker faces in personal situations.

Natasha turns back to look at the screen where the movie was beginning and the lights dimmed.

**There's sounds of fire engines, police and chaos as the camera moves out and New York City appears. Injured civilians, people rushing about, buildings destroyed, debris everywhere. Steve watches, shield in hand at them, mask gone and somewhere else.**

**The scene changes to Maria. She's in shield uniform, in an interrogation room, the subtitles show 48 hours after the Tesseract event. Maria's telling the WSC how everything could have gone better, about Fury, about superheroes and her "thoughts".**

"Dramatic, Hill, but I gotta say, this is the aftermath, we should speed things up because we still have a lot of duties to attend to," 2013!Clint says.

"Don't get your boxers in a twist Barton, we've condensed this already. We can have breaks in between for you to go off and shoot things if you want to," Tony snarks back.

Clint falls silent.

"No other questions? If no, then JARVIS, continue."

**A blue glow. The Tesseract. A voice saying that it had awakened the human world. Something, or someone, kneeling to an unknown figure. Talk about wielding its power but their ally knew it was working and they will never learn. The Other hands the sceptre to Loki and Loki looks slightly disorientated.**

"Who is that?" Steve asks, pointing at the screen.

"That, Captain, is The Other. He is working with Thanos, the Mad Titan. He has enslaved my brother, I am afraid. Loki never told me of the specifics, but it involves the Bifrost and the Mind Stone," 2023!Thor finally speaks up.

"Your questions will be answered," Tony repeats loudly before pressing play again.

**The Other tells Loki that he was ready to lead their force and the Chitauri would follow. There's shots of the Chitauri army, getting ready for war. "The world will be his and the universe yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn."**

The screen goes dark and it flashes as a new scene appears.

**Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility is shown. A helicopter lands and Nick Fury and Maria Hill step out.**

**Phil Coulson comes on screen. Fury asks how bad it is and Coulson replies a vague unconfirmed, the building was being evacuated.**

**Coulson said Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago and that it had turned itself on. He continued, saying that everyone would be out in half an hour. Fury told him to get on with it as Maria said there might not be a minimum safe distance due to them not knowing much about the Tesseract.**

**Fury said to get everything regarding Phase 2 out and it was a priority until a time when the world was ending. Maria complies and leaves to carry out Fury's orders. Fury walks to Selvig who told him the Tesseract was behaving by itself and was turning itself back on. They were trying to harness energy from space without a harness.**

**Fury asked where Barton was. Selvig said that the Hawk was in his nest, pointing upwards.**

"The Hawk," 2013!Tony laughs.

"Shut it or you'll find yourself missing a limb," 2013!Clint scowls.

**Fury called Clint down as Clint slides down from a rope. Fury orders Clint to keep a close eye. Clint replies that he can see better from a distance. Clint reports, saying that no one had come and gone and Erik was clean so tampering was from the other end. Fury shoots him a slight look of confusion, prompting him to elaborate. Clint said this Tesseract was a door to space so tampering could have been done from the other end.**

"That is a very astute observation," Nebula comments.

**The Tesseract begins to spike again as Selvig and other S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists realise it. Sparks begin to fly and the building begins to rumble. Maria and Coulson look aware and alert. A blue light shot out of the Tesseract and a portal opened as a figure appeared, revealing to be Loki, looking slightly wild and animalistic as he takes in the room.**

"He already looked kind of mad from the start," Tony mumbles. Natasha nods subtlely, chastising herself for not realising the entire plot from the very beginning. 

**The portal closes and agents point their guns at Loki. Fury commands him to put down the spear and Loki smirks. Loki fires a blue light suddenly and Clint moves to push Fury aside as another agent is hit. A few more agents try to fire but Loki throws knives and kills them. Loki fires another blast which destroys the computer and also kills a scientist.**

**The agents fire at Loki as bullets bounce off his armour and skin or drop into small portals. Loki fires another blast and an agent behind Clint is killed. Loki leaps immediately, taking advantage of the situation and presses the sceptre to Clint's chest. "You have a heart," Loki notes as Clint's eyes fade to the blue of Loki's own eyes.**

"Told you that would get you into trouble someday," 2023!Natasha whispers to 2023!Clint as Clint snorts.

**As Loki does this to more agents, Fury overcomes his horror and puts the Tesseract in a case discretely. Fury begins to move for the exit but Loki stops him and says that he needed it. Fury replied that it didn't have to get any messier. Loki replied that it would, saying that he was Loki of Asgard and he is burdened with glorious purpose.**

**Selvig says something about recognising him as Fury tries to reason. Loki counters, saying that an ant has not quarrel with a boot. Loki said he had glad tiding of a world made free of freedom itself as it was life's greatest lie and when people realised it, they would be at peace. Loki brings the sceptre to Selvig and takes him too.**


	3. Chapter 3

2013, date redacted

2013!Clint is now scowling, 2013!Natasha alternating between glancing at Clint reassuringly, then at Maria and Fury, then to the future Avengers and occasionally back to the past Avengers, seemingly at war with herself on whether she would allow her emotional impulses to take control and care for her S.H.I.E.L.D. family or the Avengers, her main mission being to keep them all together, or on the future Avengers, because she didn't trust them much.

2013!Tony seems pretty at ease, probably subtly getting JARVIS to download the entire movie. The genius would be working against himself, so that would be interesting. 2013!Bruce is staring at the screen and at 2023!Bruce in wonder. 2013!Thor looks saddened at seeing Loki again, after losing him some time ago, and he hoped to finally understand why his brother always pushed him away although they were so close and inseparable as children, Loki always talking about being his advisor if he were not king. 2023!Thor is avoiding the past Avengers' occasional curious looks, but thankfully they were tactful enough to not comment. Meanwhile, Jane and Darcy were rapidly whispering among themselves, probably some science related thing, hopefully not about tasers if Darcy's rummaging through her bag had any indication. 2013!Pepper looks quite calm and collected, she probably has seen enough things Tony had done to not even be fazed by this anymore. 2013!Maria's subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it unless you're Natasha Romanoff twitching of her eyebrows showed that she was perhaps slightly angry at seeing the agents dying, mayhaps angry at Loki, who knew. Nick Fury was being very Fury-like and just sitting on the couch like he owned it, not even questioning the future Avengers motives, Carol was proof enough. 2013!Carol, finally on Earth after a few decades, was curiously sending probing looks to her future self and even Nebula.

**Clint sees the machine working itself up again and he informs Loki that Fury is stalling for time to bury them like the Pharaohs of Old. Clint shoots Fury in the side and takes the case from the now down-Fury before handing it to Selvig and walking away.**

"Sorry sir," both Clints wince and apologize at the same time, prompting both Natashas to lie a finger on each Clint's palm. A code, for its not your fault.

Fury waves him off.

**Clint said that he needed cars as he stepped in with Selvig and Maria eyes him suspiciously and asks about Fury. In the other room, Fury, who had gotten up after ripping the bullet out of his Kevlar, told her that Barton was compromised. Clint immediately fires at Maria as Maria rolls to avoid the bullet. Clint gets Selvig into a car as he drives off rapidly. Fury tells Maria that they have the Tesseract as Maria jumps into another car and gives them a chase. An agent fires at Loki but he fires a shot from the sceptre and the car is thrown away. Somewhere else in the building, cases fall from agents' hands as the building rumbles and shakes but Coulson tells them to leave it and run.**

**Maria drives and manages to wheel in front of Clint as they open fire at each other.**

The Clints again wince and shoot a guilty look at Maria as Maria acknowledges slightly, giving a tilt of her head, barely imperceptible.

**Clint drives and rams the car out of the way and speeds off. Coulson and other agents are seen getting into another jeep. Fury manages to get onto a helicopter and take off in time to see the building explode. Clint drives Loki and Selvig away as a trapped Maria, Coulson and agents watch in shock.**

**Fury fires at the car as Loki returns fire, sceptre shooting a blast that made the helicopter crash to the ground, Fury jumping off before it lands. Fury opens fire again but the car is already gone. Coulson calls out to Fury. Fury replies that the Tesseract has been taken by hostiles while Maria interrupts saying that there were men buried underground. Fury ordered for everyone currently capable to find that briefcase. Maria replies that she copies and Fury gets Coulson to return to base as it was a Level Seven (a/n i don't really know what this means but details, and a beautiful journey had it so uhm i guess i kind of put it in haha). Fury says that as of right now, they were at war. Coulson replies with a what do we do?**

"Are we coming in soon?" 2013!Tony asks.

"No, but I am," 2023!Natasha replies and at this, 2013!Natasha smirks knowingly.

**Natasha Romanoff is showed tied to a wooden chair, in a short black dress that showed off her body and short, slightly wavy red hair. A man, Georgi Luchkov, slaps her as Natasha moves her face to the side along with the slap to minimise damage (a/n at least I think that's what she would do and did), head hanging and hair covering half her face.**

Maria is frowning slightly, with the rest of the past Avengers looking on in trepidation, hoping that she would manage to escape un harmed. Testimony to how they clearly did not know Natasha and her techniques well, besides Clint, Fury, Maria and Carol (who had seen this method many times, and besides, Romanoff striked her as a very capable spy).

**Two men were speaking in rapid Russian about some illegal weapons deal Luchkov was doing. One of the men tilted her chair as Natasha reaplises that they're using General Solohob as a front. One man forces her mouth open as Luchkov picks up a pair of pliers.**

"Does this happen a lot Red, you getting kidnapped?" 2013!Tony asks.

"They don't have her, she has them," 2013!Clint replies.

"I see, Lady Natasha has always been a master at the spycraft you talk about," 2013!Thor nods.

**A phone rings and a man hands it to Luchkov. Coulson's on the other end. He threatens him, saying that he knows his location and they better put the woman on the phone or he's going to blow up the area before he could make it to the lobby.**

"Wouldn't that just kill everyone?" Darcy frowns.

"He's either dumb or assumes that Coulson would put me down since I was apparently compromised," 2013!Natasha shrugs.

"That's not what he should be thinking, seeing that he's a soldier," 2013!Steve glares.

"World's complicated," 2023!Steve sighs and 2023!Tony pats him on the back.

"Don't worry, you'll catch up old man," 2023!Tony grins as 2023!Steve gives an exasperated but more amused sigh.

"See capsicle, that is how you take a joke,"2013!Tony gestures as 2013!Steve blinks and gives his best 'I'm so patriotic and holy, I have never done anything wrong in my life and I help old grannies cross the streets everyday' look just to mess with him.

**Luchkov gives Natasha the phone. Natasha frowns, clearly annoyed as she said that she was working. She was in the middle of an interrogation and this moron was giving her everything.**

**Luchkov splutters, saying that he did not give her everything.**

**Natasha merely shoots him an unimpressed look, before continuing, saying that she couldn't, or more likely didn't want to be pulled out of this. Coulson tells her that Clint is compromised. Natasha's annoyed face melts off to one of determination, concern and worry.**

"Thanks Tasha, STRIKE Team Delta bro code, bros before hoes," 2013!Clint grins as 2013!Natasha whacks him on the head pretty hard.

"Oh my satan I forgot about that phrase," 2023!Clint laughs as 2023!Natasha good naturedly rolls her eyes and pinches Clint in the ass, making him jump up.

"Delta, don't be children," Fury warns even as Maria gives the two pairs amused looks.

"Sorry Sir, we'll be nice and dutiful Sir," 2013!Natasha answers with a straight face, shaped to repent and shame as she lowers her head slightly.

"Don't be a jackass," Maria sighs as 2013!Natasha smirks at her, seemingly communicating telepatically in a way most thought only she and Clint did. 

2023!Natasha stamps down hard on her emotions and wipes her face. It's Clint's turn to lay a finger on her palm.

2013!Clint blinks at that and Natasha can practically hear him thinking.

2023!Natasha ignores him, he's not the Clint she knows now.

**Natasha nods to Luchkov, Luchkov grumbling and reaching out to take the phone. Before he could, Natasha stamps down on his foot and head-butts him as he cries out and tries to fight. She crouches slightly due to the chair still tied to her as she kicked another man down and spun around, knocking out the other man with the chair leg.**

"Holy shit!" 2013!Tony yells as 2013!Clint wolf whistles and 2013!Natasha smirks.

"I'm already stressed out to the max," 2013!Bruce mutters and 2023!Bruce pats him on the back.

**Natasha rolls over and crashes down heavily, using the chair leg to stab another man's toes and cracks her head back, hitting the man's face and sending him back. Coulson is shown patiently waiting on the phone, lips tilted upward in slight amusement as he hears men's screaming and crashing.**

"Ah Coulson, he was always the extremely dry humour kind," 2013!Steve sighs.

"May he rest in peace," 2013!Tony says.

The future Avengers, Fury, Maria, Natasha and Clint all twitch slightly. 

**Natasha beats up the man and flips over, breaking the chair on Luchkov as he chokes slightly. One of the men grab her but she uses some broken part of the chair to hit him hard, then running towards another man and brings him down too. Finally, she ties Luchkov up and hangs him from a chain befroe pushing him into the hole in the floor, leaving him dangling.**

"And that is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best," Maria smirks in pride as 2013!Natasha grins savagely and does a curtsy at the applause.

**Natasha walks off in her stockings, bare feet as she picks up her heels from the ground and Coulson briefs her. Coulson says that she needs to bring in the big guy and Natasha replies, saying that Stark trusted her as far as he could throw her.**

"You infiltrated my company and hacked into JARVIS multiple times," 2013!Tony whines.

"You hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. too, Stark, and besides, you're in shooting range, I will choke you out," 2013!Natasha warns.

"We still need his genius, I suppose," 2013!Steve replies, grinning with a shit eating grin.

2023!Steve flinches slightly at his past behaviour, although joking. Was this what Tony meant when he said that the Avengers were just using him for money and resources?

He shoots 2023!Tony and apologetic look, latter who waves it off but looks quietly surprised.

**Coulson said that he was getting Stark, but she needed to bring in the big guy, and Natasha's face changes slightly as she sets her mask firmly into place.**

"God, its still pretty intense how fast you can do that," Jane comments.

"Practice makes perfect, do it everyday and practise in a mirror and you'll probably get it," 2023!Natasha shrugs.

"And disclaimer, sorry for the whole incident thing," 2013!Bruce winces.

2013!Natasha nods.

"It's fine, dealt with worse, but you were pretty convincing, bonus points to you for performance," 2013!Natasha replies.

**In Kolkata, a little girl ran around the congested streets before reaching a house. A woman asked her to go away as there was sickness there. The girl sees Bruce and holds up money, telling him that her father was sick and not getting up, looking worried and frantic. Bruce calmly asks her if he was like the man he was treating. The girl nods and Bruce agrees to follow her.**

"Little girl already on her way to become a star actress huh," 2013!Tony comments.

"Start young, you started young, I started young, Rogers over here begun his street fights in alleyways when he was a young sickling," 2013!Natasha teases.

"You know what Romanoff-" 2013!Steve begun.

"Once a carnie always a carnie, or once a Steve always a Steve," 2013!Clint sighs.

**The girl leads Bruce to a slightly shabby house and soon climbs out of the back window, disappearing as Bruce sees Natasha. Natasha says that if he wanted to avoid stress, this was certainly an interesting place to do so. Bruce said that avoiding stress wasn't the secret and asked if the whole place was surrounded, giving a wry smile. Natasha said it was just them.**

2013!Bruce snorts.

"It was technically just us, but in the house. The others were outside the house," 2013!Natasha vaguely explains. 

**Bruce asks Natasha if she was here to kill him. Natasha replies, saying that she was here on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. who had never lost him and had kept other parties off his scent because Fury seemed to trust him. Bruce asked what the consequences were if he said no. Natasha says that she would convince him. Bruce asks what if the other guy said no and Natasha says that he wouldn't want to break his streak that had been more than a year long. Natasha says that they needed him because of a global catastrophe and shows him a picture of the Tesseract on her phone. Bruce jokes, asking if they wanted him to swallow it.**

"If you had called me earlier, I would have brought Goose back so Goose could keep it," 2013!Carol snarks.

"I wanted earth to be self sufficient in some ways at least, but how is Goose?" Fury replies.

"Good, he's missing Monica and Maria though, they spoil him too much I tell you," 2013!Carol sighs.

"Wait, as in our Ice Queen hotshot Maria?" 2013!Tony asks.

"No, Maria as in Maria Rambeau, she was my closest friend in the air force, she's got a daughter Monica, training to join the Air Force too, but as an engineer," 2013!Carol proudly says.

**Natasha says that they wanted him to find it as it emitted a weak gamma signature and only he could find it. Bruce wondered if he was going to be put into a cage. Natasha assures him, saying that he wouldn't but he slams his fists onto the table and yells at her to stop lying. Natasha immediately drops her calm and reassuring mood, pulling a gun out and pointing it at him, not showing a single ounce of fear but still aware and ready.**

"That was very aggressive," 2013!Pepper winces.

"Sorry, I wanted to if you would try to harm me without any second thought," 2013!Bruce replies.

"Good show," 2013!Natasha nods, but Maria and 2013!Clint notice how she tenses slightly.

**Bruce apologizes, saying that he just wanted to see her reaction as Natasha carefully lowers her gun, telling the other agents to stand down. Bruce reminds her that she said there was only the two of them. Natasha shoots him a blank look.**

"No hard feelings," 2023!Natasha reassures the two Bruces. 


	4. Chapter 4

OKAY DISCLAIMER HERE. I couldn't find the following clips, or at least there were some gaps in between and I don't have Netflix or anything haha so I cheated and reread some watch it fics and here is the final product. Fics were A Beautiful Journey, and some others from Fanfiction.net I think. Adapted, main source credits goes to their owners, don't sue me I don't have enough money to pay fines. 

Okay now on to the rest of Avengers 2012, hopefully I'll finish this by the end of the week.

2013, date redacted

**In a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility (or is it the Helicarrier, damn it), WSC is saying to** **Fury that the situation was out of control as Fury asked if they had ever felt an overabundance of control in a war. One asks if Asgard has declared war on the planet but Fury corrected it was Loki but they couldn't depend on Thor either even though he wasn't a hostile because he was worlds away.**

**WSC was urging him to use Phase 2 but Fury declined, saying that it wasn't ready and their enemy was, hence they needed a response team. WSC said that he ran the world's greatest covert security network and yet he was going to leave the world's fate to a handful of freaks.**

"Did he just say we were freaks?" 2013!Tony squawks in protest.

"They're absolute dicks, don't mind them," 2013!Clint replies.

"We're a full blown circus in their eyes," 2013!Bruce sighs.

**Fury retorts, saying that he wasn't leaving anything to anyone. He continues, saying that while these people were isolated and unbalanced, with the right push, they could be exactly as they needed. WSC said that the war wasn't won by sentiment and Fury says that it was won by soldiers.**

**A film of Captain America fighting against Hydra with soldiers beside him was playing when Steve shut off the laptop, his blank face visible on it. He looks at files of the Howling Commandos. He then saw Peggy's file and it said she was retired. Her address and phone number were stated. Steve looked at his phone but chose against calling her.**

"I'm sorry," Maria tells him genuinely and 2013!Steve shakes his head.

**Steve sees a file of Howard Stark, saying that he too was deceased. Steve notices the file on Tony, realising that he was Howard's son and reads through it before shutting it away.**

"You looked so much like him, it was unfair of me but I guess I kind of expected you to be like the Howard I knew," 2013!Steve says.

"Exactly the thing I never wanted," 2013!Tony sighs.

"My apologies," 2013!Steve says.

**Steve is seen walking around at the streets and sat at a restaurant near Stark Tower, sketching the buildings as the waitress arrived to take his order. She asked if he was waiting to see Iron Man. Steve replied, saying another time and she said table was his as long as he liked. She left, looking back at him with a smile as an old man nearby told him to ask for the waitress's number.**

2023!Natasha is grinning wildly and 2023!Steve groans.

"I feel like there's a story there, care to share?" 2023!Tony raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we were beating Nazis up and on every mission little miss busybody offers to set me up on dates with various women and even men," 2023!Steve sighs as 2023!Natasha smirks.

"When we kicked Sitwell off the roof, I told you about Lillian. She was cute, you could have," 2023!Natasha shrugs.

"You kicked fucking Jasper Sitwell off a roof?" 2013!Clint gapes.

"He was a traitor, we'll see that when later, got another movie to show you, this one onwards a little bit more, eh, intense. Besides, he was such a creep, I was about to stab him with a fork one day in caf when he kept giving me his unwanted opinions about how in my last mission, my dress probably didn't show enough ass or something," 2023!Natasha frowns.

"He told me that he didn't trust me, outright to me face multiple times," 2023!Clint adds in.

"Me too, and he also fed the rumour mills of Maria being a half robot half alien squid thing or whatever, for a Level Nine he can be disturbing," 2013!Natasha says.

"Nazi," 2023!Clint very seriously says.

**Steve is shown sitting on a train as he keeps looking back while the train moves forward, like him still looking back into his past while time just flew by and him in the future. Steve arrives at the gym and works out his frustrations on the punching bag.**

"I swear, between Steve, Natasha and Maria, you three make S.H.I.E.L.D. gym expenses sky rocket with the amount of punching bags you three break per month," 2013!Clint shakes his head.

2013!Natasha glares, but its Maria who very professionally, of course, throws a pillow at him.

"I do paperwork," 2013!Clint sulks as he falls into silence.

"And I work out regularly unlike someone who just climbs vents and eats pizza," 2013!Natasha retorts.

"Your workout regimen rivals Steve's," 2013!Clint agrees.

**Steve continues punching harshly with all his strength as there are flashbacks, of the Howling Commandoes, the final fight against HYDRA, Red Skull with the Tesseract, putting the plane into the ice, Peggy's voice, crashing into the ice, being thawed out, and the flashback sequence ends as Steve gives one last punch and the bag rips and falls from the chains.**

"Woah cap, calm down," Darcy jumps as do about half of the people in the room.

"Also how did you thaw Captain America out from the ice?" Scott asks, diverting attention from Steve who was looking uncomfortable.

Fury and Maria look at him dead in the eye (s) and say at the same time "hairdryers".

For a moment, no one moves, then they all erupt into laughter as Maria's lips twitch and Fury rolls his eye.

"I can imagine you two holding two hairdryers each and just slowly melting the ice, oh my god," 2013!Clint chokes as he gasps for breath, spread out on 2013!Natasha's lap as she too, laughs.

"It was glorious," Maria deadpans and smirks.

"Oh my god, defrosting cap with hairdryers," 2013!Tony snickers.

"Hairdryers are a girl's best friend, and Captain America's," 2023!Tony very seriously says.

"Kids, are we going to watch the movie or not?" Rocket asks.

"Okay, JARVIS, resume please."

**Steve moves to another bag and was about to start again. Then, Fury's there, and he asks if he has trouble sleeping. Steve replies dryly, saying that he had slept for 70 years and had his fill already. Fury says that he should be celebrating but Steve says that when he went under, the world was at war. When he was out, they said they had won, but with what losses?**

"There is always, always a cost, Steve," 2023!Natasha says.

"Learnt that lesson," 2023!Steve sighs.

**Fury says that they had recently made some mistakes. Steve asks if he was giving him a mission, and Fury agrees. Steve asks if this is trying to get him back into the world, and Fury replies with a trying to save it. Fury hands Steve a file and Steve reads about the Tesseract. Fury said Howard had fished it out when he had searched for Steve and they believed it could be the key to unsustainable energy.**

**Steve asked who had taken it and Fury said it was Loki and he wasn't from around here. (a/n this was directly copied from a beautiful journey because I couldn't find any other way to phrase it oops)**

**Fury said they needed to bring him up to speed on a lot of stuff and that the world had gotten even stranger than he knew. Steve replied that nothing could surprise him now. Fury bet him 10 bucks for it, looking like he was about to smirk.**

**Back to business, Fury said that there was a debriefing package waiting for him. Steve picked up a punching bag and started walking away as Fury asked if he could tell them anything about the Tesseract. Steve replies with a you should have left it in the ocean before walking out.**

"Couldn't damn well just leave it in a closet after it was fished out and taken by the Kree then fought for again, couldn't we?" Fury says.

"Kree?"

"Aliens, we'll get to that later," 2023!Carol says.

**Tony Stark in full Iron Man suit was shown disconnecting Stark Tower from the water grids before he flew out. Pepper asks if he had disconnected the power grid and he confirmed, saying that Stark Tower was about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy if their reactor took over and worked. Tony asked her to light it up and the Stark Tower lit up. Pepper asked how it looked and he said like Christmas with more him.**

"Everything looks better with me," 2013!Tony smirks.

**Pepper told him needed to do press and she would be in D.C. the next day. Tony asked her to enjoy the moment and she said she would once he came in.** **Tony landed at the tower as his Suit was being taken off and JARVIS informed them that Agent Coulson was on the line. Tony snarked back, saying that he wasn't in, but was actually out. JARVIS said that Coulson was insisting and tony told him to grow a spine.**

**Tony enters as Pepper said levels were steady and he agreed as he was involved. He asked her how it felt to be a genius as all of this came from her. Pepper humbly disagreed, saying all of this came from the Arc Reactor. Tony asked her to give herself some credit suggesting about like 12% as she incredulously stared and asked if he was kidding. He said an argument could be made for 15 as he had done all the heavy lifting and the security snafu was her fault as sweaty workmen were teeming up in their elevator.**

"Men," Jane shakes her head.

2013!Tony puts up his arms in mock surrender.

**As the two poured the wine and toasted, Tony asked if he was going to pay for that comment in a subtle way later and Pepper said it won't be so subtle. Tony said the next building would say 'Potts' on the tower but she wanted it to be on the lease as JARVIS said his protocols were being overridden and Coulson appeared on the phone. Tony said that he had reached a life model decoy of Stark and could leave a message. Coulson said it was urgent so Tony asked him to leave it urgently when Coulson walked in.**

"Great to see you all have no qualms about hacking my AIs," 2013!Tony sighs.

**Pepper greeted him, calling him Phil as Tony said that he thought his first name was Agent. Coulson was holding a S.H.I.E.L.D. device and Tony replied, saying that he didn't like to be handed things.**

"Work it to earn it," 2023!Tony shrugs.

**Pepper said she loved to be handed things so they could trade. She gave Coulson her drink and took the device before giving it to Tony and taking his drink. Tony said consulting hours were between 8:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. every other Thursday but Coulson said it wasn't a consultation. Pepper asked if it was about the Avengers and as an afterthought said which she knew nothing about. Tony said it had been scrapped and he hadn't even qualified and Pepper said she hadn't know that either.**

"Can thank dear Natalie Rushman for that wonderful analysis," 2013!Tony sighs.

"Let your ego go for one second, we'll see if you can handle being a big boy," 2013!Natasha retorts.

**Tony said he was too 'volatile' and 'self-obsessed' and 'didn't play well with others' and Pepper said she did know that.** **Phil said it wasn't about personality profiles anymore as Pepper walked up to Tony. He said that he thought they were having a moment and she said she was having 12% of a moment.**

"Payback," 2013!Pepper smirks.

**Pepper noted that Phil seemed shaken as Tony opened several holograms that showed Steve, Hulk and more intel as Pepper commented that he had a lot of homework. Tony said he wouldn't but Pepper corrected when he finished and she would take the jet to D.C. tonight. She then whispered what they would do after he was finished.** **Tony and Pepper shared a kiss and then Pepper walked towards Phil, asking if he would drive by the airport by any chance and he said he could drop her. Tony begun reading the intel and picked one of the Tesseract.**

"Shit goes down after this," 2023!Steve sighs.

"Language!" 2023!Natasha, 2023!Tony, 2023!Bruce, 2023!Thor yell.

"Its been literally 8 years," 2023!Steve groans.

-

time to stop procrastinating and stop reading/writing fics 


	5. Chapter 5

I caved in and decided to try and churn out a chapter in thirty minutes while referencing YouTube 

2013, date redacted

**At a base, scientists are seen working with guards patrolling. Selvig is shown working on some machine. Loki sits in a secluded area, and closes his eyes as the sceptre glows brightly and the landscape changes. It's a barren, cold and empty place. An illusion, or astrophysical form of Loki in full armour walks towards the creature called The Other with mottled grey skin and a raspy sort of voice.**

**"The Chitauri grow restless," The Other growls. "Let them play themselves," Loki replies calmly (the audio of the clip wasn't too good so if this is inaccurate do drop a comment). "I will lead them into glorious battle." "Battle," The Other spits with venom, "against the weaker (something, audio sucked and had no captions okay I'm trying sorry)." "Glorious, not lengthy," Loki retorts.**

'He's always been like that?" 2013!Tony raises an eyebrow at the outright show of disrespect.

"Loki has always been a little silvertongued and especially around those of greater power or ranking," 2013!Thor explains vaguely.

"It's nice seeing him again, he keeps dying when I'm around," 2023!Thor sadly says and his fingers curl into a fist, as if he were trying to summon a can of beer, but had left them behind in the future.

**"If your force is as, formidable, as you claim," Loki continues, casually strolling around the rock-like structure. "You question us?" The Other hisses. "You question Him?" The Other whips his head around to look at Loki. "He put the sceptre in your hand, He who gave you ancient knowledge and new purpose! You, cast out, defeated!"**

"Pause!" 2013!Tony calls out.

"Who is this He?" 2013!Tony asks.

"We're getting there, but He is Thanos, the Mad Titan, the last of his kind. His mission is his misguided vision, which is to kill half of all life so that the universe would be balanced. He succeeded," 2023!Carol explains.

"How do you even kill half of all life?" 2013!Natasha asks.

"The six infinity stones. He wielded them, and the stones did his bidding. We'll get into that later, but for now, you know about the Tesseract and the sceptre. The Tesseract actually contains the Space stone, and the sceptre contains the Mind stone. There are four other stones, Soul, Time, Reality and Power," 2023!Thor explains.

"How do these stones even work? Kill half of all life using them seems pretty impossible, how do the stones decide who to kill?" 2013!Bruce frowns.

"Magic," 2023!Clint simply replies.

"We're figuring out magic, me, Brucie and Jane, maybe Darcy, we're going to," 2013!Tony frowns.

**"I was king. The rightful king of Asgard. Betrayed," Loki says. The Other growls. "Your ambition is little, born of childish need. You will retrive the Tesseract, and you will not fail!" (sorry i think the audio was cut off halfway before continuing or something so I'm not really sure haha) "You don't have the Tesseract yet," Loki calmly says as The Other snarls and moves towards him like a ghost before coming right in front of Loki.**

**"I don't threaten," Loki says, cocking his head predatorily. "But until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words." "You will have your war, Asgardian," The Other promises. "If you fail," The Other continues, stalking towards him and walking around him. "If the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no CREVICE where He cannot find you," The Other hisses. "You think you know pain," The Other drops his tone to a lower one, Loki's lips pressing into a thin line, "He will make you long for something as sweet as pain." The Other reaches out and grabs his head as a figure, most likely a Leviathan, slithers in the background.**

**Loki is jerked heavily back to reality as he closes his eyes briefly and winces. But only for a second, then he opens his eyes and looks shakily determined.**

"This Thanos jerk must be pretty powerful," 2013!Tony notes.

"My brother has suffered greatly under the hands of him, but he only revealed it to me very late. After a lot more traumatic events," 2023!Thor hesitates slightly before discontinuing.

"He is not dead?" 2013!Thor asks, frowning.

2023!Thor does not reply.

**The Helicarrier, still in ship mode on the sea is shown. A Quinjet lands on one of the many runways. (Yeah, I kind of skipped the Coulson-Steve thing because I couldn't find the clip and didn't want to copyright further)**

**Natasha Romanoff is seen striding towards the Quinjet as Steve and Coulson step out, Steve looking around. "Agent Romanoff, this is CAPTAIN Rogers," Coulson introduces. "Ma'am," Steve greets respectfully. Natasha gives him a nod. "Hi, they need you on the bridge they're starting on the face trace," Natasha informs Coulson, all business and tone slightly monotone and emotionless. "See you there," Coulson replies as Steve looks slightly out of place and confused.**

**Natasha just eyes Steve up and down before talking. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha begins, walking off as Steve followed quickly. "Thought Coulson was gonna swoon," Natasha allows herself a smirk and Steve looks slightly sheepish. "Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" Natasha asks teasingly as she erupts into a full smirk. "Trading cards?" Steve inquires, putting on a 'Captain America' smile. "They're vintage, he's very proud," Natasha answers. They walk past a plane and spot Bruce.**

**"Doctor Banner," Steve greets. Bruce looks up, slightly confused and mouth slightly open and spots them. 'Oh yeah hi," Bruce says, reaching out to shake his hand. "They told me you'd be coming." "Word is you can find the cube," Steve says as Natasha watches them carefully behind a mask of indifference. "Is that the only word out here?" Bruce asks, looking around self consciously as Natasha looks away for a few moments at the landing areas.**

**"Only word I care about," Steve cheerfully replies and Bruce nods almost disbelievingly. "Must be strange for you, all of this," Bruce gestures. "Well," Steve says, looking at a team of agents jog around, "this is actually kind of old."**

**"Gentlemen you may want to step inside in a minute," Natasha says, walking back towards them. "It's gonna get a little hard to breathe," Natasha smirks proudly.**

"Way to put it," 2013!Clint says.

"Helicarrier duty is boring sometimes, thank god this one didn't last long," 2013!Natasha sighs.

"Is that so?" Maria asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

2013!Natasha smirks.

**Steve and Bruce look around confusedly. The Helicarrier is lifting off the water suddenly, engines whirring and machinery working. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asks. "Really, you want me in a submerged metal container?" Bruce asks. Natasha just calmly strides behind them, cocking her head slightly. Steve and Bruce head to the edge of the loading deck, both looking down. Turbines appear as water rolls off in great cascades over the sides and the Helicarrier lifts up.**

**"Nuh uh, this is much worse," Bruce sighs. Agents are seen putting on masks.**

"So, that was why Cap gave you ten bucks when he thought we weren't looking huh," 2013!Tony says.

"I won fair and square," Fury smirks.

**Natasha is seen leading Bruce and Steve to the control deck. Natasha looks back at Steve and Bruce, smirking even wider if that was possible at their reactions before striding off. Steve stops and stares as he watches agents, tech teams, ops teams, high ranking agents and handlers work. Steve smiles slightly as Bruce wanders off and sees the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the walls.**

**The camera pans to Maria, ordering agents around and saying something about protocols as Maria turns to report to Fury. The outer Helicarrier is shown engaging retro-reflection panels and the Helicarrier just blends in with the skies. Fury turns around. "Gentlemen," he greets.**

**Steve casually walks up to him. Fury holds out his hand and Steve passes him a ten bucks he just unfolded. Steve moves towards the centre of the control deck. Maria eyes him critically.**

"Are you checking him out?" 2013!Tony squawks.

"No, I'm doing a professional evalutation of him, we don't all just gaze at other people with moony eyes and dream about them," Maria sighs as 2013!Natasha scowls slightly and 2013!Clint snorts.

**"Doctor, thank you for coming," Fury says to Bruce. "Thanks for asking nicely but uh, how long am I staying here?" Bruce asks. "Once we get the Tesseract," Fury replies. Bruce nods. "Great, where are we with that?" "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," Coulson says as Steve frowns slightly and listens. "Cellphones, laptops, if its connected to a satellite," Coulson continues as Natasha is seen crouching near an agent's work space and sweeps the screen, showing Clint's profile and Maria walks back towards the control deck in the background, "it's eyes and ears for us."**

**"We still can't find him in time," Natasha says. "You have to narrow your field, call every lab you know has access to spectrometers and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. We can at least rule out a few places."**

**Fury nods in acceptance. "You have somewhere for me to work?" "Agent Romanoff, show Doctor Banner to his laboratory please." Natasha nods and heads to Bruce to comply. "You're gonna love it Doc, we've got all the toys." Bruce asked if they had a specific device and she said she wasn't sure, to which he jokingly said she was very young. (directly from a beautiful journey, the clip cuts off halfway damn it)**

"Actually, I was born pretty early," 2023!Natasha says, shrugging.

"Dear Tasha is about to celebrate her hundredth birthday five years later!" 2023!Clint grins as the past Avengers' jaws drop wide open not for the first time.

"You were born in 1928?" 2013!Tony screeches.

"I got the super soldier serum, a Soviet version. Before Erskine worked for the Americans, he came to dear Motherland. It was his final product, after leaving the Germans and defecting. He was invited to test it out, and I was chosen by Madame. It sucked, but I don't really remember much of it, so its fine," 2013!Natasha frowns.

"So you two are super soldiers?" 2013!Bruce asks.

"The fast metabolism sucks when it comes to refuelling," 2023!Natasha sighs.

-

Anyways that's it for today yay I overshot by another thirty minutes watching clips and trying to piece them together plus terrible audio really takes forever, time to be productive 

Also considering if I should greatly condense and skim over a lot of parts in this film because it only serves as a recap and slight character studies and relationship hints hmm we'll see honestly but after avengers 2012 will be the more indepth character studies and scenes, first up will probably be tony because he basically started the Avengers don't @ me


	6. Chapter 6

OKAY I am on a roll today because i just read more infinity war fix its and this really angsty Nat fic so here I am to deliver and had to force myself to not just write so much Natasha angst. 

COOL ME DOWN IS SUCH A PEGGY CARTER KIND OF SONG OMG TO THE PERSON WHO MADE THAT EDIT YOU ARE A GODSEND

2013, date redacted

The rest of the movie is a recap, and it flies by fast. The fight in Stuttgart (Thor frowns and Jane and Darcy just stare), the interrogating of Loki (brings up some sore spots), his escape, battling, fighting amongst each other on the Helicarrier (Steve bites his lip), getting themselves together because Coulson, the Phil Coulson, was dead (and Fury again twitches), Tony being thrown out of a window (Tony unconsciously flinches), Hulk nearly killing Natasha (that was something Maria was still angry about, seeing Natasha look on with pure, undulated fear, masks all gone), fighting again, Maria shouting for one Avenger, just any freaking Avengers to _close the damn portal_ , Steve launching Natasha up for her to comply with orders because she apparently was just that self-sacrificial and mission oriented, WSC nearly nuking and killing them all, Tony in the wormhole, Tony landing hard back onto the streets of New York as Hulk, Thor and Steve all worry about a teammate, Clint looking lost and unsure and shaken, agents cheering as the Avengers saved the day and all looking exhausted and spent. 

"That was the worst fucking thing ever, we better not be doing that again," 2013!Clint sighs.

"Yeah, about that," 2023!Clint winces.

"I feel like that was a shit ton of emotional baggage for today. Shall we take a break or shall we watch more movies now? Actually next up is clips and not movies, because we're doing backstories before we start on movies in the future," 2023!Tony rambles.

"We should maybe continue watching a few more before the day is over, if everyone is okay with it, so that we don't have to put this off when someone needs to leave urgently, but maybe a restroom break if anyone needs it," 2013!Steve suggests.

They all agree.

2013, date redacted

Now that everyone is gathered again, 2023!Tony starts the second movie of compiled clips.

(This one was inspired by Avengers Watch Snippets by Ifihadatardis, don't sue me too okay)

**The words Kunar Province, Afghanistan appear on the screen.**

"Oh dear," 2023!Tony sighs as Maria frowns slightly.

**“I feel like you’re driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do?” “What, you’re not allowed to talk?” “Hey, Forrest!”**

"Were you that bored?" 2013!Natasha dryly asks.

"In my defense I really was a little shit back then," 2013!Tony says.

"You have matured well Stark," 2013!Thor booms.

**“We can talk, sir." “Oh, I see, so it’s personal?”**

"You okay there Hill, or is this bringing some kind of PR nightmare?" 2013!Tony raises an eyebrow.

2023!Natasha and 2013!Natasha blink. Oh. _Oh._ It's that mission. Shit.

2013!Natasha fiddles with her phone and it goes off.

"Hill, we have a small thing about the agents and the new protocols, shall we go?" 2013!Natasha says.

"Okay, we'll be back once we handle that," Maria says, shooting her a brief look of thanks as they disappear together.

2023!Natasha hopes 2013!Natasha is taking care of Maria. That mission was hard. Maria had gone into the field because she heard Stark was involved and Fury placed her within the team. Ten Rings had happened and Maria was the only survivor. S.H.I.E.L.D. had to pull her out of the debris as she had a mangled leg, broken ribs, bleeding, one or two GSWs and shrapnel covering her. It was brutal, bloody, and Natasha was away on a damn mission. It was terrible, and Natasha had let Maria cry holding her for hours when Natasha finally came back and heard what had happened before rushing to the private medical ward for Maria.

Maria hated it when she failed on a mission, same like Natasha, except Natasha rarely failed, and the things she had to do to complete the objective often haunted her more than what Maria couldn't do. They were the untold story. Natasha had been hiding in the shadows her whole life, and she had found another person hiding there, Maria. Every Avengers had a kind of flair and showmanship, even Clint with his bow and arrows. Natasha stuck to the sidelines, the background, like Maria was the backbone of S.H.I.E.L.D. but never really showed herself. There was no need to, they were just doing their jobs, keeping themselves from their own demons. Against all odds, they had found solace in each other, whether it was the stolen moments between duty of teeth and tongue clashing, hands rubbing furiously and hot gasps or if it was during their lazy mornings making coffee together or patching each other up or helping each other get through their nightmares.

It's just them, and its all they need. Maria will heal in her own time with 2013!Natasha, 2023!Natasha would not interfere. Her own Maria is _dead,_ dead dead dead, and its because she wasn't enough, and because the Avengers failed, but her alternate universe self deserved a chance with Maria, to make forever reality.

So Natasha does not say anything and they continue watching Tony's past, Tony's life and the making of Iron Man forged in fire and turned to solid, real metal.

**“No, you intimidate them.” “Good God, you’re a woman!”**

"Wow, observation of the century Tony," 2013!Darcy dryly says.

"I wasn't very nice back then, I'll have to say that," 2023!Tony winces.

"It is alright Stark, we must all learn from our mistakes and others' too, that is what makes us better," 2013!Thor replies.

" **I’m kind of having a hard time not looking at you now, is that weird?”“Hey sir, I have a question. Is it true you went twelve for twelve with last year’s Maxim cover models?”**

"Actually, surprisingly, I didn't, that was reporters blowing it out of proportion. I only went with one, and that was no strings attached kind, she was pretty nice too, willing to go back to normal the morning after," 2013!Tony shrugs.

**“You’re kidding me with the hand up, right?”** **“Is it cool if I take a picture with you?”** **"Yes, it’s very cool." Tony said and the soldier next to him gets his picture taken with the Tony Stark.** **“I don’t wanna see this on your MySpace page, please."**

**“Please, no gang signs." A beat. “No, throw it up, I’m kidding.” Tony smirks. “Yeah, peace, I love peace,” Tony poses for the photo. “Be out of a job with peace.”**

Both Tonys wince. 

**Then there's a loud explosion. Soldier shouting, barking orders, the female soldier (for backstory purposes gonna say that's Maria, but thank god for Kevlars and dumb luck am I right) gets shot down and Tony sqauwks, asking what was going on, clearly scared and stressed.**

2023!Natasha was staring sadly at the screen as she watches Maria go down, as she sees Tony practically vibrating with nervousness. Her relationship with Maria was never public, no one knew but Steve, Fury, Clint, Sam and Pepper because they could be trusted to actually keeps secrets even under high levels of torture, maybe not so much Sam and Pepper but still.

**One soldier is ordered to protect Stark as the other gets out but is also immediately shot down. Tony's practically bleeding fear now. Tony yells at a soldier to give him a gun, finally snapping out of his daze. The soldier yelled at him to stay in the car but of course, Tony runs out too.**

**Tony ducks down as he nearly gets shot by the onslaught of bullets. Tony flinches as a missle with the words "STARK INDUSTRIES" lands near him. Tony gets up and runs, but it explodes before he could get far. Tony was panting heavily and he tore off his Kevlar, realising shrapnel had pierced through the vest and he was critically injured.**

"Is that why you needed the arc reactor?" 2013!Carol asks as both Tonys nod.

"This changed a lot for me, found out Stane was a liar and using me to sell weapons for power. Jericho was not very fun, and not the best chapter of my life," 2023!Tony quietly says.

"Anyways, moving on, I'm assuming we're done with me for now," 2013!Tony says, apparently uncomfortable with having these raw scenes being shown to so many people. (btw rhodey isnt here because he's off on air force business, he'll be around in the subsequent chapters though)

"It's Steve here," 2023!Tony says, and the Steves resign themselves to fate.

-

omg I'm on a roll here also disclaimer I know people like Tony and Natasha and Loki well enough and can pretty much predict them but like Steve for some reason is harder even though he's the most blatantly out there kind of character but it also makes him unpredictable in certain situations esp seen in catws and cacw. So, next chapter will be harder. Also I have never in my life seen the incredible hulk so I need to @ some writer to borrow their fic content and link it to them so if anyone reading has written such a fic for bruce before I need help here or maybe I'll just like link their fics and say "okay just read this" because I say once and I saw twice, Natasha and Maria superiority, I will not take criticism for this 


	7. Chapter 7

2013, date redacted

Natasha and Maria enter the room in time to see Steve's past, the development of Captain America. No one comments.

**There's S.H.I.E.L.D. agents milling around, dressed for the cold weather. The men talk for a bit as tehy decide that one hell of a crane would be needed to do the job as something large appeared in the fog. One agent shines a torch at it. They begin work, drilling their way inside the plane and searching the space covered in ice and snow. One agent notices the shield and gasps. It's Captain America's shield, poking out of a block of snow.**

"And that, kids, was how I was found, when S.H.I.E.L.D. poked around and stumbled upon the Valkyrie," 2023!Steve says.

"The Valkyrie? They are an elite force of women warriors on Asgard, but they all died in battle and Odin never reinstituted it. My brother and I always liked listening to tales of their glorious training and battles," 2013!Thor excitedly says.

"You mean, you did, I said no Thor, we cannot be them, I may be able to shift into one but I am not one," a voice drawls.

Everyone turns back and is greeted with the sight of a smirking Loki, a guy with a cape and other aliens.

"Holy fu-"

2013, date redacted

So, after introductions and coaxing, the cape guy introduces himself as Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and the rest of the aliens, Gamora, Groot, Peter Quill, Drax, Mantis and Loki. There was generally a lot of distrust going around now. The mood had become tense and jumpy.

"Oh stop being so stuck up, I viewed fourteen million possiblities out of billions of others and we only win one, I must ensure that you do not mess this up. We are going to put all past grudges away right now," he finally snaps after 2013!Clint shot hi, one last glare and Loki was yanking himself away from the Thors, although looking surprisingly happy and even more surprised that he was happy.

Rocket and Nebula were now reuniting with the Guardians, the usually loud and cranky Rocket sniffling into Groot and Nebula throwing her arms around Gamora, thoroughly surprised but grateful.

2023!Natasha, Steve and Clint look away resolutely. So much to do, so little time. So many gone, so many souls weighing on them, so many debts to repay.

It was so fucking unfair, Natasha decides, blinking back stupid, hot tears, berating herself for letting down her walls in front of so many people. Indeed, 2013!Natasha was staring at her, as if trying to decipher her. 2013!Natasha had settled herself in between Maria and 2013!Clint as 2023!Natasha practically feels Maria's blue ocean eyes glancing at her.

Who the hell even decided that the universe would be like that? Her love ripped away from her, Clint's gone, his entire family, the only other person who he had left from the time he was meant to be in gone, Wanda, Sam, Vision, so so many, heck even Fury. If her Maria was here, she would kick her ass for being so pathetic and sad. Her Commander. Natasha had said her vows to her gravestone on one stormy night as she let the rain soak her, to let her feel _something,_ anything, just not the numbness and constant static in her head.

Natasha blinks again as she wills her masks back into place. 

She is here on a mission, goddamn it. Years behind the desk has made her soft no matter the few missions she ran. Everyone was still dealing with the aftermath of the Snap, no one really wanted to do anything illegal now.

Natasha brushes the ring attached to a chain in her pocket as she composes herself. It's useless, nothing but a chunk of metal. She wasn't even actually married to Maria yet, hell, she didn't even have a body to bury. It did not feel final, no matter how final this truly was, and Natasha hated it. The pause, the rewinding, the watching again. 

Why couldn't Strange have brought along her Maria? Why, why why?

Natasha glances at 2023!Clint as she sees his leg shake uncontrollably.

Natasha lays her palm flat on his thigh as he flinches away and a twinge of hurt shoots through Natasha.

Clint sends her an apologetic look as he sighs and sags into the couch further.

Natasha retracts her hand rather shakily. _Love is for children._

"So, shall we continue now that the reunions are over?" 2013!Tony says.

**A theatre appears, and the audience with Steve amongst them is watching a movie. An advertisment comes up, about the war and asking for able bodied men to enlist. A man yelled that they didn't care and wanted the movie to continue as many glared. Steve leans forward and tells him to shut up.**

"You just had to Cap, huh," 2023!Tony says.

"He is being very rude towards the Midgardian warriors," 2013!Thor frowns.

"What Thor says," 2013!Steve shrugs.

**Steve is shown being beaten up in an alley by the same man. He scrambles to stand but is always knocked down. The man is about to punch him again when Steve picks up a trashcan lid to shield himself behind it. The man threw the lid aside and punched Steve down again. Steve staggers up to his feet , "You just don't know when to give up, do you?" The man taunts. "I can do this all day," Steve pants.**

"You need to stop picking fights when you were a sickly little thing," Loki comments.

"I'm standing up for what's right," 2013!Steve argues.

"Yeah, by fighting? Using fists instead of words and real actions? That might work in the 20th century, but it isn't going to now," Loki replies.

2023!Steve blinks. 

(btw I'm not team Iron Man or Team Cap I'm team Nat ha but seriously though she's the only one thinking in the entire movie, and her judgement would probably be the clearest besides T'Challa later in the movie)

**"Hey, pick on someone your own size," someone says and a hand reaches out to grab the man. It's Bucky Barnes. The man attempts to punch out but Bucky delivers a nasty punch first and kicks him in the ass, making him run off.**

2013!Natasha's jaw twitches. She must be realising, making connections between Bucky and Soldat, 2023!Natasha realises. 

"You're lucky you have him, Rogers, because you clearly were high on whatever meds you have," 2013!Tony shakes his head mockingly as 2013!Steve pokes him in the side as a retaliation.

**Bucky dryly jokes about how Steve just loved to get punched.**

"He agrees, see?" 2013!Tony gestures.

"I was stubborn, still am," 2023!Steve protests.

**Steve replies that he had the bully on the ropes. Bucky spots the new enlistment form and asks which time this was. Bucky notices that Steve had put he was from Params. Bucky quips that it was illegal to lie on his enlistment form. Steve sees Bucky's uniform. He asks if Bucky had gotten his orders yet. Bucky said he was Sergeant James Barnes of the 107th and he was shipping out for England the next day.**

**Steve said he should be going. Bucky puts an arm around him and guides him out of the alleyway, saying that it was their last night in the city and they were going to the future. He handed Steve a newspaper which had the title "1943: The World Exposition of Tomorrow."**

"Howard," 2013!Tony says.

"Honestly, that was a pretty fun night. We saw your father save his first exhibition when the flying car broke down. Pretty funny. Bucky dragged me along to double date even though both ladies clearly wanted him more so I ate my popcorn and ran off to the other recruitment centre. Bucky hunted me down," 2013!Steve shares.

"Why am I not surprised," 2013!Natasha sighs as 2013!Steve grins sheepishly.

"Met Erskine there, so kind of kick started this I suppose," 2013!Steve says.

"The fates work in subtle and often mysterious ways," Loki sagely says.

"Magic," Scott nods.

**"The serum amplifies everything that is inside the man. So, good becomes great, and bad becomes worse.This is why you were chosen. Because the strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength - and knows compassion."Erskine was saying, a scene of Steve sitting nervously on his bed while Erskine held a bottle of wine.**

"His wisdom rivals that of Odin's," 2013!Thor nods as Loki fake gags and 2023!Thor shakes his head and lays a hand on Loki's thigh as he flinches but does not pull away.

"The serum is very potent, even when diluted. Mitochondrion (its a blackhill fic reference btw, go check it out, to the author please update I need to know what happens next) project was not as harsh but still not pretty, Agent 56 can attest to that," Maria says.

2013!Natasha cocks her head at that, and 2023!Natasha smiles internally. 

"Agent 56 is so hot," 2023!Clint smirks and its 2013!Natasha who reaches over and whacks him on the head. 2023!Natasha high fives her and they settle back into their seats as 2013!Clint winces and rubs the back of his head unconsciously.

"I gotta know who," 2013!Tony says but Pepper manually takes the tablet from his hands and tosses it to 2013!Steve, who catches it easily.

"Oh come on," 2013!Tony whines.

Maria shakes her head.

**"Whatever happens tomorrow," Erskine says, pouring them glasses of wine, "you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man." "To the little guys," Steve toasts. Erskine's face suddenly changes and he reaches out to grab his drink before Steve could drink it. "No, you have procedure tomorrow, no fluids." "Oh, we'll drink it after then." Erskine tsks. "I don't have procedure, drink after, I drink today!"**

"He's funny," Scott says.

**They watch Steve get strapped to a device as Tony winces, seeing Howard. Steve is put into a machine and jokes about not being able to go to the bathroom now. The machine comes to life and when it reaches 70%, Steve starts screaming as Peggy yells for Howard to shut it down. Steve protests and Howard listens to Steve, setting it to 100%. The machine smokes slightly and out comes Steve, now enhanced and a super soldier.**

"Woah though," Scott says as Darcy wolf whistles appreciatively.

**The scene changes to Red Skull and Steve battling for the Tesseract on the plane, the Valkyrie.**

2013!Steve stiffens slightly.

**Steve manages to destroy the machine. Red Skull looks on in horror as blue tendrils from the Tesseract snake around him and he drops into a portal to somewhere else.**

"Do we know where he went?" 2023!Tony frowns.

"I do not know," Strange and Loki say at the same time before glaring at each other.

"Are you two still petty about that one time," 2023!Tony asks, eyes shining in glee as he recalls the scene from the particular movie.

"Norns Stark, are you done being such an invasive worm," Loki sighs as 2013!Thor shakes his head again at his brother's insults.

"Worm?" 2023!Tony splutters.

**Steve speaks to Peggy over the comms as he realises what he must do. "I'm gonna need a raincheck on that dance." "All right. A week next Saturday, at the Stork club." "You've got it." "Eight o'clock on the dot, don't you dare be late.Understood?" "You know, I still don't know how to dance." The ice drew nearer as Steve begins to tear up. "I'll show you how. Just be there." "We'll have the band play something slow. I'd hate to step on your -" The radio cut off. Peggy is shown, looking devastated, tears streaming down. "Steve?" There's silence, and it fills the room as Peggy sniffs.**

2013!Steve was silently crying into a slightly terrified 2013!Bruce at this point. 

"Aunt Peggy had a good life, Steve. I am very grateful for your sacrifice, Aunt Peggy remembers you well and she says to visit again soon," Maria says, comforting.

"So, we'll have a break here," 2023!Tony says and no one disagrees.

-

That's my girl is old but gold, and fire by peking duk ( i think but honestly no offense but the artist name sounds like peking duck which is actually a dish ahaha) is a new bop i found and its really good. 


	8. Chapter 8

2013, date redacted

Everyone calms down a bit and now there's pizza and in 2013!Tony's case, some scotch. They eat in silence, contemplating what had happened.

"Okay, should we continue?" 2023!Tony suggests.

"I mean, sure, don't want to waste any time," 2013!Clint shrugs.

"Actually, I might be able to help with that," Strange clears his throat. He chants some language and moves his hands about and the room turns bright orange and fades back to normal.

"What exactly did you do?" 2013!Tony asks, gazing around suspiciously.

"He placed a time stopping barrier around the room. Time continues to flow in here, but outside, its all frozen," Loki says, inspecting the barrier and reaching out to feel it.

"The fancy sparks are such a waste of energy, you really should stop trying to be so dramatic," Loki snipes as Strange scowls.

"Er, now that the magic show is over, should we continue?" 2023!Clint says.

(ha so i couldn't help myself and i had to do nat next oops. After nat should be thor then clint, im not doing bruce sorry i havent watched the incredbile hulk yet, check out some other fics to watch their reactions and stuff)

**The screen shows a room of beds and girls. The subtitles show 1937, Russia.**

2013!Natasha huffs, resigning herself to fate.

**A young girl with blond plaits is shown, lying down on a bed. The camera pans up to her wrist, chained to the bed.**

"Why is the young lady chained?" 2013!Thor asks.

"So that we can't escape," 2013!Natasha faintly says.

Maria subtly curls her ankle around Natasha's.

**A woman walks in and starts uncuffing the twenty eight girls in the large room. They all sit up. The blond girl glances around before breaking off some bread she had hidden and secretly passing some to the girl next to her, also blond with plaits, and they both share a small smile and secretly eat.**

"That's cute," Mantis says.

**The scene changes. The girls are now dressed in blouses, ties and culottes. They're in a dark room and a projector projects the film Snow White on the screen without audio as the girls chant the lines.**

"Am I the only one getting the shivers?" 2013!Tony jokes.

"Cultural reset, we had to be Russian, yet understand and be able to be like an American. So, we watch movies and videos. We adapt to become American, its why I have an American accent, but can shed it at any time. The spy who is not able to do so is a dead spy," 2023!Natasha says.

**The scene changes. A courtyard is shown, with the girls now in shorts and sleeveless tank tops. Two girls, from the first scene, are called out. They square up, ready. The woman tells them to begin and they strike. One girl cartwheels over the other using momentum and force as they exchange more punches and yell. Finally, the girl manages to get the other into a headlock. The girl looks up at the woman, questioning. The woman nods. The girl in the headlock is seen, fearful. The girl snaps her neck and the screen goes dark.**

"What was that?" 2013!Steve roars as 2013!Thor yells about there being no honour. Nebula and Gamora are shaking their heads, thinking about Thanos and how similar this was.

"Her name was Nastya," 2023!Natasha says. "I made the mistake of befriending her. I killed her, and never looked back. I never found her body, perhaps they cut her up and burned her to cinders."

"How could the woman make you do such a thing?" 2013!Steve says, aghast.

"Madame B was making Widows, not girls, Steve. Friends were distractions and useless, we have no friends or allies, only enemies and ourselves," 2013!Natasha manages to say.

"There aren't many records of me, and my brain is scrambled enough to be unpredictable, so there's only a few more. We could probably be prosecuted or killed for even having pictures of these, so don't go around telling people," 2023!Natasha warns.

2023!Tony nudges 2013!Tony and he scowls and deletes the footage he had saved.

**Girls dressed in leotards were dancing. A man is shown, arms crossed and telling them to repeat again. The pointe shoes of girls are beginning to show hints of red, yet everyone repeats and does not show any emotion but blankness.**

**The scene changes. A now older girl, clearly Natasha due to her hair now being fiery red, is shown. She raises her chin slightly and points the gun at the target. She fires five shots using her left hand, all meeting their mark, then tosses and catches the gun with her right and shoots again, all landing in the right spots to kill.**

"Five each hand, ten repetitions, miss one and get punished," 2013!Natasha says.

**Natasha is seen scaling the walls of a heavily fortified building. Her fingers dig into the metal sheets covering the bricks as they dent under her strength. She carefully picks the lock of a window and slips in.**

**The two guards in the room don't notice her until she slams their head together and she quietly lays them to the ground, silent as night.**

**She opens the door and sneaks out, passing hallways like she was familiar with the building. Natasha suddenly tenses, as if hearing something and ducks into a room before locking the door.**

**There's a young girl in the room, looking terrified.**

**"Shh, devochka, be quiet," Natasha adopts the tone of a caring mother as she hushes her.**

**The girl blinks and opens her mouth to scream but not sounds comes out, probably from fear.**

**Natasha moves forward and calmly closes her mouth. "You'll catch flies, that's no way for a princess to act, is it?"**

**The girl shakily shakes her head.**

**"Good girl. Be quiet, and they will not come for you."**

**Natasha moves things like a table, a closet and some chairs to block the door as she angles the windows of the room to a 40 degree angle for her to be able to see and also protect and escape when necessary.**

**Natasha turns the lights off and hides in a corner of the room, bringing a finger to her lips and telling the girl to shush.**

"You are good with children," 2013!Thor nods and 2013!Natasha winces.

**Suddenly, there's gunshot sounds outside. There's men yelling, more firing and loud banging. The girl whimpers and Natasha insistently whispers for her to be quiet.**

**"Drakov! They are here, the Room has come!" A man yells in Russian.**

**The girl's eyes widen. Natasha hisses slightly and moves to shove a cloth into her mouth.**

**"Katya, open up!" the man, Drakov, yells, banging on her door. The girl begins to thrash against Natasha's hold. Natasha huffs and shoves the cloth deeper into her mouth as she slips on handcuffs on the girl.**

**"Katya, Katya! You have to run, you must run! Don't let them-" Drakov is cut off as there is a gunshot fired and a thumping. There's shadows that can be seen from the gap beneath the door, another female-like figure picking the lock and kicking away the man.**

**Katya, the girl, begins to scream. The sound is muffled, but it is still audible. Natasha curses, maybe she should have chloroformed her.**

**The lock slides back as the door is pushed against. Natasha tenses and hastily shoves the girl under her covers in her bed.**

**"Natalia, we must go, Ivan is dead, he should never have betrayed the Red Room," a blond says.**

**"Yelena, the girl, what should we do?" Natasha replies, gesturing to the thrashing girl under the blanket.**

**The woman, Yelena, hardens her gaze.**

**"If she is taken by the Red Room, she will be trained to be a Widow," Yelena says.**

**"If that is what Madame wills, we will have to bring her in. Did you receive your orders yet?"**

**There's a huge pool of blood snaking from Drakov and towards the two Widows now.**

**"No, sestra Natalia. We wait for Dmitry to come and brief us. I'll scout, you stay here and make sure she does not escape," Yelena decides and Natasha nods.**

**Natasha lets the girl rise up from beneath the covers. The girl lashes out quickly, short leg trying to kick at Natasha. Natasha in turn slams her head down to the bed and pins her shoulders and legs. The girl loses all fight as she starts to sob.**

**"Can't you just drug her, Natalia? I hate crying and simpering children," Yelena sighs.**

**"She'll need to be awake so that Dmitry can judge her and decide if she is suitable," Natasha replies.**

**The girl is now screaming at the top of her lungs for her father.**

**"She won't stop, Yelena," Natasha sighs into the comms, exasperated.**

**"Do you think Dmitry would punish us if we broke her jaw so that she shuts up? I can hear her from a few levels down, she's bound to attract attention if some guard managed to alert the police," Yelena says.**

**"The blood is going to be such a nuisance, its like Oksana's first kill. Sloppy, got blood on her pants and everywhere," Natasha frowns as she holds down the girl who was still thrashing and crying.**

**"If she wants her papa so bad, let her, she can't run far anyways, the princess is being hunted by many," Yelena replies.**

**Natasha shrugs and drags the girl up to her feet and marches her to see her father. The girl screams shrilly as she sees him, dead on the floor in a pool of blood.**

**Natasha lets the girl jump onto her father, sobbing and shaking.**

**"Why?" Katya asks Natasha, looking up with teary eyes.**

**Natasha stays silent as Katya screams and mourns, cupping her father's cheek and shaking as blood stains her pristine white nightgown.**

**The girl suddenly gets up and bolts.**

**Natasha sighs and leaps out to catch her and wrestles her onto the ground, pinning her down again. The girl shouts for help but no one answers.**

**"Stay silent. Dmitry will come soon, and you must not look pathetic," Natasha hisses.**

**The blood of Drakov is now staining both of them as Natasha wipes her face and blood paints her face too.**

"That is just a tad bit creepy,' 2013!Tony says.

**"Get up, Dmitry's here," Yelena says, striding towards Natasha.**

**Natasha gets up and again drags the girl upright, the girl seemingly spent and sagging against Natasha.**

**"Stand upright, have you no honour?" Yelena tells the girl.**

**"Widows," a man greets as he walks in, in full gear. "Mission report."**

**"Target eliminated, guards dead, no one living in the house except the four of us," Natasha dutifully says.**

**"Drakov chose to hide his daughter here, huh. That makes the two of you this one's sibling, it seems. Ivan has always been a cowardly man," Dmitry sneers at Katya, looking fearful.**

**Without another word, Dmitry brings out a gun and shoots Katya. Katya goes limp in Natasha's arms and more blood stains Natasha's boots and the carpet.**

**"She will not fight, she is weak. She is breakable, the last of Drakov's daughters. You two are not, you are made of marble, da?" Dmitry snorts as Natasha and Yelena nod.**

**"Good, clean up squadron is coming, in about fifteen minutes the police will come. Get ready and we'll go, and Black Widow, meet Madame in her office immediately after debrief, she would like to speak to you."**

**"Yes Sir," the two Widows say as Natasha lets Katya slump to the floor and steps over her unmoving body as she leaves.**

"So that's what you meant by Drakov's daughter, you are Ivan Drakov's daughter, and the other girl Katya is too, and apparently the other Widow is also his daughter?" 2013!Tony asks. 

"He was my handler. He defected because he finally got cold feet and ran with the birth of his third daughter. Red Room does not like to have what is theirs spirited away, and this was a reminder of what would happen if you ran," 2023!Natasha says.

Maria's grip on 2013!Natasha's hand tightens as Natasha looks slightly paler.

"Katya, or Yekaterina Ivanovna Drakov. I found out that he was my father, but I never knew his name until now. My mother was a Romanova, the last living descendant. She was assassinated by someone, I suspect it was Red Room or a Soldat, only one of them could have such clean shots, straight through the brain according to the autopsy record, might have been falsified but who knows," 2023!Natasha shrugs.

"I have a question, did they experiment on you, you looked different from when you were young," Gamora asks.

"I was a natural blond, but they wanted the Black Widow to have red hair, you'll paint to world in red for the glory of the Motherland, Madame said. So I was altered to be a redhead. I don't know if they did anything else, I don't have any records of me as a child. Red Room truly and completely wiped away everything that could have sold them out. Widows were kind of just here, there, everywhere, but you never knew who they were before," 2013!Natasha replies.

"Emotional load dump over, time for the next backstory thing now," 2023!Steve says, distracting everyone.

-

btw the drakov daughter scene was made up by me ha i would have included budapest but maybe in clint's because i dont have scenes for clint. time to be productive and do work im so off my schedule right now


End file.
